What's Best for Him
by roughdiamond5
Summary: Inside Out!AU featuring the Nordics, based on a tumblr post. Mathias (Joy) sees a light on in Headquarters after hours, and goes to investigate.


**This fic is dedicated to tumblr user paonoru for their outstanding Inside Out/Hetalia Nordics crossover (** **paonoru. tumblr** **post / 128975552194 /yes-norway-go-sass-him-away-sothis-took-a), which really brightened up my night for seeing it.**

 **Disclaimer: I saw Inside Out only once, and I saw it in French, so I think maybe some of the terms I use are wrong. I dunno. Let me know.**

 **In case nobody's clicking that lovely link up there, casting is as follows:**  
 **Denmark/Mathias: Joy**  
 **Norway/Lukas: Disgust**  
 **Sweden/Berwald: Sadness**  
 **Finland/Tino: Fear**  
 **Sealand/Peter: Anger**  
 **Iceland/Emil: their person**

 **NEW: Find this work on AO3 under the name snark_sniper. (It was actually posted there first - this is, what, a week later?)**

Mathias wakes to a light in the control room. He slips out of bed, tiptoes to the door, and shuts it as quietly as he can. What? If he slams it as he usually does, Tino will startle and panic, which will throw Peter into a tantrum about not getting enough sleep, and Berwald will just sigh in that awful way again. As much as he loves his coworkers, Mathias isn't going to put himself through that.

The light seems even brighter now that he's out of the emotions' house and no longer glimpsing it through the window. The usual stream of dreams plays at a much lower light, but the reading light at the control panel always outshines it.

Mathias slips across the floor in his bare feet, spying the green lump sitting on the floor in front of the control panel. Lukas is staring at the dream projections, with some of the day's memories curled around him. Mathias suddenly remembers that Lukas has uncharacteristically volunteered to send the memories for processing for the past few days. It looks like he pulled aside a few for himself.

Mathias looks up to realize that what he's seeing projected aren't dreams.

"I thought _all_ the memories had to be sent at the end of the day."

Lukas stills, his concentration broken. His long green eyelashes flutter in frustration, but he doesn't turn to look at Mathias. "And I thought certain emotions weren't supposed to interrupt others' work."

"Yeah, well, Emil's asleep," says Mathias with a shrug. "We're off duty."

"So I can do whatever I want."

"Shouldn't you want to sleep, though?" Mathias takes a chance and settles himself a few feet away from Lukas, pressed up against the sleek front of the control panel. "So then you can be ready for him tomorrow?"

"That sounds more like something _you_ should be doing," Lukas retorts. He still doesn't look at Mathias, but he also doesn't pull away any of the memories between their two bodies.

Mathias lets the comment roll off. He stared at the projection, trying to figure out what is so worth Lukas's time. When he sees the face of Emil's newest friend— _future date_ , he can't help but think with a tinge of pride—he can barely say he's surprised.

This particular memory is of the first time Emil and Kaoru met, at the lunch table. Mathias already had a good feeling about Kaoru, just from how he was willing to come up to Emil and be friendly like Emil deserved. Sure, Berwald and Tino and Peter all had their reservations, but when didn't they?

But when Kaoru officially announced his intentions—well. Mathias hadn't seen Lukas flare up with activity in a long time. Lukas entered input about as quickly as Mathias did, which confused Mathias and made Emil issue a rather weak "yes" to Kaoru's offer of a date. Mathias couldn't believe it. Emil has so much to offer other people! He can't limit himself! Of course he had to say yes!

Come to think of it, though, Lukas hasn't really talked to him after that. And that was a few days ago. Huh.

Mathias turns to look at Lukas, who is staring at the projection as it loops over the dialogue between Emil and Kaoru. The emotions aren't in charge of Emil's words, only his innate reactions and responses. The push but not the ball, as it were. So Mathias watches the handiwork of the guys off in Reasoning and Speech, constantly impressed with how they take his and the other emotions' messages and turn it into Emil's half of the conversation. It's rare that they get to sit back and watch without constantly paying attention, waiting for their opportunity to slip in and defend Emil.

"They didn't know what to do, obviously."

Mathias turns to look at Lukas. He thought Lukas was too absorbed to make much conversation. "Huh?"

"When I started adding my input. The Speech guys were so used to your stupid messages that they didn't know what to do with mine."

"What—about Kaoru?"

"No, about the tofu turkey," Lukas scoffs.

Mathias feels odd about Lukas's first comment. "You know the Speech guys know us. They know what they're doing."

"Obviously not. Or else why would Emil have _this guy_ " —and here Lukas flings a hand to the projection—"for a date tomorrow night?"

Mathias looks at the screen. "Why? What's wrong with him?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out. Something's wrong, I'm sure of it."

"You're beginning to sound a bit like Tino, you know," Mathias says with a bit of a smile.

"Tino gets worked up even before there's anything to fear."

"Well, yeah, that's his job."

"And mine is to double-check yours."

Mathias pauses. "What do you mean?"

"I mean," says Lukas, and now he finally turns to look at Mathias, "why did you make Emil say yes? And then you and I had to both send a message, so then Speech make him sound so flustered, and now Kaoru's probably going to think Emil is some sort of idiot like you, and even if he doesn't, then I still don't like him."

Mathias furrows his brow. "But you don't know why."

"…Not yet."

"Have you ever considered that maybe he's okay?"

Lukas scoffs. "That's your job."

"And yours is to stay up all night? You know, the Dream Studio is probably going to get angry at you if you keep interrupting their transmissions."

Lukas looks like he wants to fight back on this, but he must have been watching the same memory for longer than he wants to admit, because he sights, lifts himself off the floor, and moves to remove the memory from the projection. He doesn't go back to Mathias, though. Instead, he holds the memory under the reading light, scanning the preview as the dream channel resumes playback. When he doesn't find what he's looking for, he retrieves another memory from his collection in front of the control panel.

"I just want him to have the best," Lukas mutters as he examines the newer memory, and it's so quiet that if Mathias didn't see his lips move, he would have thought it was part of a dream.

"I do too," says Mathias.

"We all do, idiot, but you just have to charge in without even thinking, do you? What if this guy is crazy? Or abusive? Or _unpopular?_ "

Now it's Mathias's turn to scoff a little. One of the memories catches his eye, and he lifts it off the ground with both hands and comes to stand beside Lukas. He holds the memory under the reading light.

"Look," he says. In the memory, one of today's, Kaoru walks alongside Emil, only to rush up in front of him at the last minute and hold the door open to the classroom. "There, see? We picked a gentleman."

Lukas looks at him, then at the memory. He then takes it from Mathias's hands and sets it up for projection. The dream feed disconnects, and the memory plays in higher quality and goes on to show Emil warily thanking and walking past Kaoru—only for Kaoru to brush his hand against Emil's backside as he closes the door behind them both.

"What a gentleman," Lukas says with a huff, watching as Emil slaps Kaoru's hand away. That was fully Lukas's response.

"Oh—oh come on, it's _flirting._ Emil should have flirting! And he liked it at least a little, you saw it in his thoughts."

"Emil should have a date with a better sense of tact than that. And speaking of tact"—Lukas fast-forwards the memory to the lunch they had after class—"who looks at their phone while eating?"

"Emil, for one. Didn't Kaoru ask him for his tumblr URL?"

"And that's another thing! Who reblogs K-pop, seriously?"

"Well, maybe they'll have something to talk about on the date! Maybe Emil can learn something new, or show him My Little Pony!"

"And the _memes_ —if I see one more Nyan Cat on his blog, I'm going to scream. And he doesn't even have a Pepe!"

"Okay, do you realize you're critiquing his blog tastes? Emil's is even worse sometimes, and I don't see you complaining about that."

"Because there's nothing to complain about there. It's this other guy—who does he think he is, asking out Emil after just meeting him? He's as tactless as you are. Emil should have someone who _wants_ him, who doesn't just think of him as someone to screw around with."

"And how do you know Kaoru isn't that way? We've only known him a few days. C'mon, Lukas, you have to assume the best."

"No. _You_ do."

Mathias is quickly beginning to see that this is one of the circumstances the others talk about, when Mathias isn't quite understanding that the other emotions don't have to think like he does. That, in fact, they shouldn't think as he does. That it's healthy. But at the same time…

"Look," he begins, "I see where you're going with this. And I get it, okay? Maybe there are a few reasons to be weirded out by this guy. But what else would you have him do? Emil has to start dating sooner or later—or at least it sounds like he wants to, based on the amount of shipping fic he's been getting into lately. Wouldn't you rather it be with this guy who's at least interested?"

"I just don't see why it has to be _this_ guy."

"Well, it's not like Tino's going to let him ask out anybody else."

"And maybe Tino's onto something."

"And maybe _I'm_ onto something too, huh?" Mathias risks a grin at Lukas, and at least he doesn't get kicked in the shin for it. "I mean, Kaoru's kind of cute. And he makes really stupid jokes. And maybe letting Emil have a boyfriend will help him with that popularity thing you're always so worried about."

Lukas stares at Mathias. "So…you're saying Emil should be happy."

Mathias rubs the back of his neck with a sheepish grin. "Well…"

Lukas sighs. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you're pushing for your own job."

"But I'm saying that you can do your job too! C'mon, haven't you wondered a little what it would be like for Emil to have a boyfriend? Think about all the things we all can do for a relationship!"

"Yeah—Peter starting up fires in Headquarters when they break up, Berwald setting up Emil's sad playlist to listen to until I'm sick of their whining, Tino kicking in with memories whenever someone new asks out Emil, and me saying the whole time that I told you so. Sounds like fun."

"So, what? What are you looking for, Lukas?"

Lukas sighs. "I told you. The best for him."

"And maybe it's Kaoru. Maybe just for right now, and maybe we'll have to help Emil later, but—" Mathias cuts himself off when he realizes that Lukas knows he's talking in circles. "Well, how about I just give you the right to say 'I told you so' if tomorrow's date doesn't work?"

To Mathias's surprise, Lukas looks thoughtful. "I'm also going to hit you upside the head, you know."

"You always do." Mathias offers a wide grin. "So how about it?"

Lukas looks between Mathias and the memories. Something in him seems to deflate. He then takes the current memory under projection and sets it on the rack, to be sent away first thing tomorrow night.

"I'm going to be watching every move on that date, you know," he warns as Mathias helps him collect the rest of the memories.

"I know—me too! It's going to be so exciting."

"And the minute he does something I don't like, Emil is going to know about it."

Mathias's smile turns a little crooked. "Like you always say, someone has to get him to stop and think." The memories are all on the rack by the time he starts that statement. Mathias hopes the others don't notice when they come in, but he can always cover for Lukas and say Emil had insomnia last night.

As they walk back to the house, Mathias risks putting an arm around Lukas's shoulders, just to prove there are no hard feelings between them. "You know, you've been getting a lot more power since puberty, anyway. You're lucky I'm not jealous."

A light smirk crosses Lukas's lips. "Good. Because jealousy is really more my domain."

They enter the emotions' house as quietly as they can, which is not so much in Mathias's case. Berwald opens one eye. "What were you doing?" he asks with an air of defeat.

"Just talking with my buddy Lukas," Mathias hoarse-whispers with a thumbs-up. Lukas doesn't say anything, but climbs above Mathias's bed to the top bunk he's claimed and settles down with his back to the others.

Berwald looks out the window. "Didn't know you needed the control panel for that," he says. Mathias turns around to see that they never did turn off the reading light. Before he can think of a decent excuse, though, Berwald apparently decides that it's just like Mathias and Lukas to leave the rest of them out of whatever they're doing, and rolls over in resignation.

Mathias shakes his head. He'll never quite understand Berwald, much less the sadness he represents. He lays himself down in bed and stares at the bunk above his.

He hadn't told the others, but he has a theory. He's joy, sure. But he thinks happiness, real happiness that doesn't just depend on the situation, involves all of them. Like a family, where they let each other do their jobs. Which is why he's not going to force Berwald out (no matter how much he would sometimes like to) and why he's going to make sure even Lukas is comfortable with the decisions they try to make for Emil. Because he knows he's not infallible, not inexhaustible, and he knows that while he charges ahead, the others have to help him blaze the trail and clean up after.

He loves Emil, and he knows the others do too. It's why they don't have a sixth of them, representing love. They all share it.

And, he thinks as he closes his eyes to rest, that includes Lukas.

 **I wish I could have slipped some more evident dennor in there, but I think it's more difficult for emotions to fraternize with each other than it is for national personifications. I'll just have to be happy with everyone's undying love for Iceland (which is so true and you know it).**

 **NEW: _look guys, paonoru illustrated it and I'm so excited and so lucky seriously go thank her_ paonoru. tumblr post/132547186114/hi-i-dont-know-if-you-frequent-ao3-all-that**


End file.
